22 LAKKS. 



tweeii It and Lake Superior is an elevated ridge of about 

 1 500 feet in height ; the streams on the west fallino- into 

 Lake Winnipeg, while those which flow towards the east reach 

 Lake Superior. 



We now come to the site of the five largest fresh-water 

 lakes in the world. Lake Superior extends, from west 

 to east, 335 miles, with an extreme breadth of 175. Its 

 waters flow through the St. Mary's River b}^ a I'apid descent 

 into Lake Huron, which is 240 miles long. This lake is 

 • livided by the Manitoulin islands into two portions, and is 

 connected with Lake Michigan by a narrow chaimel without 

 rapids, so that the two lakes together may be considered to 

 form one sheet of water. . On its southern extremity the 

 waters of Lake Huron flow through another narrow channel, 

 which expands during part of its course into Lake St. Clair; 

 and they then enter Lake Erie, which has a length of 265 

 miles, and a breadth of 80 miles. It is of much less depth than 

 the other lakes, and its surface is therefore easily broken up 

 into dangerous billows by strong winds. Passing onward 

 towards the north-east, the current enters the Niagara River, 

 about half-way down which it leaps along a rocky ledge of 

 100 feet in height, to a lower level, forming the celebrated 

 Falls of Niagara, and then passes on in a rapid course into 

 Lake Ontario. The fall between the two lakes is 333 feet. 

 Lake Ontario is 180 miles long and 65 miles wide. Out 

 of its north-eastern end falls the broad stream which here 

 generally takes the name of the St. Lawrence, and which 

 proceeds onward, now widening into lake-like expanses full of 

 islands, now compressed into a narrow channel, in a north- 

 easterly direction. The true St. Lawrence may indeed be 

 considered as traversing the whole system of the gTeat lakes of 



